{"id":2396,"date":"2016-07-19T07:15:21","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T12:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/?p=2396"},"modified":"2016-07-19T06:37:02","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T11:37:02","slug":"equal-pay-pledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/2016\/07\/19\/equal-pay-pledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing The Equal Pay Pledge To Emergency Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you were an economist it seems like emergency medicine would be a great field to examine pay equality- after all we all do shift work. Yet, unfortunately even in our world, pay\u00a0data is rarely \u201cclean.\u201d There are a lot of different ways in which we get paid: hourly rate, salaried, RVU based, incentive based etc.\u00a0 And that\u2019s before you throw in shift differentials, seniority, regional variability, partnerships, bonuses and non-clinical responsibilities. Apples to apples comparisons are difficult.\u00a0 In 2010\u00a0<\/span>Robeznieks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 reported on a Modern Health Care survey that the\u00a0<\/span>average\u00a0<\/span><\/i>salary for emergency medicine physicians varied from $239,000- $316,000.\u00a0 That’s a pretty big range.<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember the first time that I was hit with the reality that two people working side by side, literally doing the exact same job, could actually get paid differently. Several years ago I was in a departmental meeting in which a headhunter consecutively paged me and a male colleague out of the meeting to try and recruit us to fill shifts at a nearby hospital that had just changed contracts. Although we both said no, as we were leaving the meeting my colleague (who had far less professional experience) made a comment about the generous rate they were offering- his number was 50 dollars higher\u00a0<\/span>per hour<\/span><\/i>\u00a0than the one I was quoted. Big light bulb moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately, there has recently been some real momentum at the national level to try and address gender pay differences. This month the White House announced a voluntary program called <\/span>The Equal Pay Pledge<\/span><\/a> in which they publically challenged companies to annually review their pay scales along with their hiring and promotion policies to better identify and then correct any gender disparities. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that businesses must play a critical role in reducing the national pay gap. Towards that end, we commit to conducting an annual company-wide gender pay analysis across occupations; reviewing hiring and promotion processes and procedures to reduce unconscious bias and structural barriers; and embedding equal pay efforts into broader enterprise-wide equity initiatives. We pledge to take these steps as well as identify and promote other best practices that will close the national wage gap to ensure fundamental fairness for all workers.”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The following are the first 28 companies who have taken the pledge: pledge:\u00a0Accenture,\u00a0Airbnb,\u00a0Amazon,\u00a0American Airlines, \u00a0BCG, \u00a0Buffer, \u00a0Care.com, \u00a0CEB,\u00a0Cisco,\u00a0Deloitte,\u00a0Dow,\u00a0Expedia,\u00a0Gap,\u00a0<\/span>Glassdoor,\u00a0GoDaddy,\u00a0Jet.com, \u00a0Johnson & Johnson,\u00a0L\u2019Oreal, PepsiCo, Pinterest, Popcorn Heaven, Rebecca Minkoff, PWC, Slack, Spotify, Staples, Stella McCartney.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what can we as emergency medicine physicians do to keep this issue moving forward and to facilitate professional equity amongst talented men and women. Here are two suggestions:<\/p>\n